Living in Fresno is stressful — worse than most cities in California, study shows

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Fresno residents are more stressed on average than people from Los Angeles, Chicago, Manhattan, Phoenix and more than 60 other cities, one recent social media-based study says.

Survey results analyzing the language in more than 5 million tweets from the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. ranked Fresno at No. 25 in the nation and No. 9 in California, according to London-based Babylon Health.

About 11.24 percent of tweets based out of Fresno contain language indicative of moderate to high stress levels, according to the study, which took random samples of tweets from July 2015.

Explore where you live.

The most stressed city was Hialeah, Fla. (13.03 percent), and the least stressed was St. Paul, Minn. (just 2.56 percent). The most stressed state was Alaska (11.69 percent) and the least was Wyoming (7.72 percent).

Babylon Health’s study methodology explains how TensiStrength measures stress and its correlation to language. One major source of short-term stress for most people is travel, including daily commute periods, as well as any associated delays.

What causes long-term stress? Babylon Health refers to recent nationwide surveys by the American Psychology Association, which in 2017 found that 63 percent of Americans were anxious about “the future of the nation” and 43 percent responded that they were stressed about health care.

Last year’s APA study said about 75 percent of Generation Z respondents said mass shootings are a significant source of stress, and that more than half of Gen Z students said they were worried about the possibility of a shooting at their own school.

Here's a quick spin around music artists who have named-dropped Fresno in their song lyrics. The list ranges from superstar Bruce Springsteen to the eccentric Brian Kenney Fresno.

Andrew Sheeler covers California’s unique political climate for McClatchy. He has covered crime and politics from Interior Alaska to North Dakota’s oil patch to the rugged coast of southern Oregon. He attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks.